NELC's central government funding slashed

NORTH East Lincolnshire Council will see a 6.9 per cent reduction in its spending over the next two years, Government figures have revealed.The borough's leaders will have £152-million to spend on delivering local services in 2013-14 and £144-million in 2014-15 – a reduction of two per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively.Council leader Councillor Chris Shaw has said the publication of the settlement is "a dark day for local government".See tomorrow's Grimsby Telegraph for more.

@Steve0
I didn't realise we were having a debate. I just thought that we hold totally opposing views, and that we would never agree. That's fine by me, you're entitled to your opinions and I won't be losing any sleep over it.
Judging by what gets posted on the comments here, you're not alone. Unfortunately that just depresses me even more. It seems as if too many people think that everyone who doesn't pay their Council Tax is just a recidivist.
Spending council funds on expensive debt collection companies, and court costs, won't balance their books, or make up the shortfall in Government subsidies. The only way to do that is with a thorough root and branch review of just what the costs and expenses are, and where the undoubted cuts will have to be made.

VoltaAmp, I agree with you that ineffiencies should be driven out and also that prison must be an absolute last resort once all other methods have been tried. No arguments there at all.
Wilderness - whilst disagreeing with you I haven't once stooped to personal insults or swearing. You have multiple times. How does that add to a debate other than cheapening it and lowering the tone?

Readers take note………….
The Grimsby Council Bashing Troll is very active on threads today and is using many different names – it's an obsessive compulsion he has. He has so many AKAs he could fill a telephone directory but they're always ignored.
Play the game and award yourselves 5 points for each of his many names you spot and 10 points where you catch him responding to his own posts and 20 points if you spot him congratulating himself, because that's really weird ;-) and when he's spotted masquerading as someone else then that's a whopping 60 points .
THERE ARE LOTS OF POINTS TO BE HAD TODAY – spot the style / new name and WATCH HIM SET A COMMENT TRAILS LEADING TO ESCALATION ;-) .

It just doesn't make any sense. They councils in the most deprived areas are being hit hardest! How on earth can that be right? It's easy enough for the likes of Westminster council to cut back on the sushi and head massages, but for places like Grimsby that are heavily dependent on the social provisions provided by the council it's not that straight forward.
This is why the people running this council come up with hair brained schemes to massively increase parking charges, consider charging for garden waste collections, etc - it's because they don't want to hit people where it really hurts.
We live in a nation that rewards those that have and neglects those that have not. I dread to think what state we will be in 5 years down the line. Somebody needs come in with the cahonies to make banks, massive corporations and the super wealthy pay their fair share. They get rich off the back of the ordinary man or woman in the street - so it is only fair they contribute to the running of the country that allows them to make their fortunes.

Bolton North East's MP David Crausby made a good point in yesterday's Pime Minister's Questions:
http://tinyurl.com/c8cnxby
Q11. [134222] Mr David Crausby (Bolton North East) (Lab): rose—[ Interruption. ]
Mr Speaker: Order. Let us have order for Mr David Crausby.
Mr Crausby: When the great train robbers stole £2.5 million from Royal Mail, they were sentenced to as many as 30 years in prison. When our bankers get caught fraudulently taking billions of pounds from poor people throughout the world, they just pay large corporate fines and walk away with fat pensions. How can we ever be in anything together as long as we tolerate powerful villains who are too privileged to be put behind bars?
The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, and that is why the Wheatley review into the LIBOR scandal recommends a series of changes, including criminal sanctions. I think that when people have broken the law they should face the full force of the criminal law. What punishment we should design for the people who sold our gold at half price, on the other hand, is another matter altogether.

@Steve0
Stop trying to occupy the intellectual high ground you muppet.
For someone who classes themselves as "loopy left" you seem rather too fond of tarring certain socio-economic groups as scroungers or benefit fraudsters. Do you do a lot of staring through people's windows to check on the size of their TV?
If you really understood the tax system in any way, you'd realise that it's the people at the very top of the economic tree we need to be persuing, not hard up families from long forgotten, and economically dead towns in the "up north".
Why don't you just say it, "I pay my Council Tax, so anybody who doesn't should be sent to jail".
Read enough newspaper articles about people failing to pay tax, and you'll find hardly any of them are sent to jail.
I'll say it again, jailing someone for not paying their Council Tax is a totally disproportinate punishment.

Nukedragga, such a shame your imagination is wasted, you could be earning a living writing Fairy Stories.
However, the £6.9million reduction in spending is a good reason for the council keeping Scartho Baths instead of ignoring the public.
I'm probably old fashioned believing in some integrity within the councillor clique. Weren't they elected as representatives of the electorate, and not their relevant political parties.
It's a good job the electorate has short memories!